Sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, the daughter of Ravi Shankar, wanted to do something special on her seventh album, Traveller. Inspired by the birth of her first daughter, she sought to connect with one of the most glorious offspring of her beloved Hindustani classical music: flamenco, perhaps the greatest cultural export of the Romani gypsies. Many historians believe that the gypsies actually originated in India, moved westward between 500 and 1000 AD and eventually settled in the southern Spanish region of Andalusia. Traveller seems to confirm that theory. By setting Shankar’s magical sitar-work alongside the fiery rhythms and powerhouse vocals typical of flamenco, Shankar and her musical compatriots find the nexus of two distinct cultures, suggesting that perhaps they’re not so different after all.

Since the journey of the gypsies began in India, it feels right that Anoushka Shankar treats us to a few unalloyed Indian numbers on Traveller. Golden rays shoot out from the throat of Shubda Mudgal as she sings Ravi Shankar’s text on “Krishna” over a glowing bed of flute, sitar, and Indian percussion. The lengthy instrumental “Bhairavi” finds Anoushka’s sitar draping its gauzy, pitch-bending melodies over the drone of a tambura, before beginning the slow, bumpy ride west to Spain atop Tanmoy Bose’s tabla. These traditional Indian tunes pull back the beaded curtains and clear away the incense smoke to access the core of India’s ancient musical traditions.

Traveller truly comes alive once we follow it westward. Shankar sounds like a visiting musical dignitary on “Buleria Con Ricardo,” trading licks with pianist Pedro Ricardo Miño within a fiery flamenco workout. The Indians return the favor on the title track, in which flamenco hand percussionist Piraña adds an almost danceable backbone to the kinetic continuum of Indian percussion, sitar, and the hypnotic wind instrument shehnai. By the time we reach the spectacular guitar–sitar duet “Boy Meets Girl,” the two musical traditions are more than playing cameos with each other. Shankar’s sitar raga melds perfectly with guitarist Pepe Habichuela’s sparkling granaína chord progression, leaving no seams in the brilliant musical fabric they’ve woven. As the flamenco palmista finally drops his hands, and the tambura drone slips away into the ether, this Traveller’s journey is complete.